A "Seattle-centric" political scene: From left, Senator Ed Murray, Jane Abbott Lightly, her partner Pete-e Petersen and Rep. Jamie Petersen celebrate as gay couples wait for marriage licenses at the King County Administration Building.

Photo: JOSHUA TRUJILLO

A "Seattle-centric" political scene: From left, Senator Ed...

Senator Ed Murray and partner of 21 years Michael Shiosaki are presented during the Governor's Ball. Despite split in State Senate, Murray has promised that all his colleagues -- Democrats, dissident Democrats and Republicans -- will be invited when the couple tie the knot later this year.

Photo: JOSHUA TRUJILLO, SEATTLEPI.COM

Senator Ed Murray and partner of 21 years Michael Shiosaki are...

House Speaker Frank Chopp (l) and Senate Majority Leader Rodney Tom (c) are likely to find themselves at odds during this year's legislative session. GOP House leader J.T. Wilcox (r) is likely to be a bystander.

From his base in the wealthy Eastside enclave of Medina -- where U.S. presidents go for $35,800-a-couple brunches -- State Senate Majority Leader Rodney Tom has gazed down his long nose at the city across the lake.

"Instead of a totally Seattle-centric approach to both policy and the budget, we're going to have a couple of options for people to look at and to figure out what is the best option for the middle class in moving us forward," a Democrat who has joined with another Democrat to give Republicans a majority caucus in the state senate. Tom will serve as majority leader.

To borrow a reference to the Weyerhaeuser plutocrat who helped develop Medina, that's a bunch of Clapp-trap. What is "Seattle-centric"? Tom has not told us. It's a turn of phrase.

Sen. Tom's first initiative for the afore-mentioned middle class was to propose elimination of the state's Guaranteed Education Tuition program, one of the few means the Legislature has created to help middle-income households pay the soaring costs of college.

Sen. Tim Sheldon, D-Potlach, Tom's partner in coalition, has also accused his fellow Dems of pursuing an agenda that is "absolutely Seattle-centric." Sheldon is fond of endorsing Republicans in statewide elections.

City-bashing jingoism is not unique to Olympia. Conservatives in the Washington, D.C., punditocracy, who have lived adult lives in the capital (e.g. George Will), regularly heap scorn on the "political class," the "Washington, D.C. mentality" and the "Inside-the-Beltway mentality."

The truth is, Tim and Tom, Seattle IS a middle-class city, a city whose middle-class voters show foresight and generosity (e.g. the Families and Education Levy) toward trying to move people out of poverty and into the middle class.

Seattle is a driving economic engine for the entire state. Companies on the Eastside, in Sen. Tom's 48th District, do not ship and preceive products via Lake Washington, but at the Port of Seattle. Cargo going through that port supports the jobs of about 135,000 people: They sure aren't all in Seattle.

The University of Washington, starved of public support by the Legislature, is the state of Washington's third-largest employer. A 2010 study found that it contributes $22.56 to the state's economy for every shrinking dollar that Olympia lawmakers invest in it.

Oh yeah, and 74 percent of the University of Washington's graduates -- O.K., some now come from campuses in Bothell and Tacoma -- remain in the state.

The point is simple: We're co-dependent in this state. A Seattle that's rapidly recovering from the Great Recession is not just an island unto itself. It generates a disproportionate amount of the state's revenue.

Cheap resentment serves only the interests of political parasites -- initiative promoter Tim Eyman and right-wing radio talk show hosts come to mind. Sure, Seattle's interest groups get a little annoying. They annoy a lot of Seattlites as well.

Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle (and a candidate for mayor of Seattle) put Tom down and put it well on lawmakers' opening day: "I am deeply disappointed with the divisive language that has once again seeped into this Legislature."

Sen. Tom is sufficiently two-faced that a bust of Janus would be an appropriate decoration in his office.

Explaining why he appears ready to jettison gun safety legislation -- of which he is a longtime sponsor -- Tom told a City Club forum: "What we're looking for is issues that unite." What he means seems limited to uniting a power-driven coalition of 25 state senators.

And to what end? Fulfilling a court-ordered mandate to fully fund K-12 education? Repairing the terrible damage done to higher education during the Great Recession? Devoting adequate resources so individuals who are dangerously mentally ill are not sent onto our streets?

Nope. "There's no new revenue: We are broke," Tom told the City Club forum, which incidentally was held in downtown Seattle.

Olympia looks like a disheartening place from day one. Despite desires of the voters, registered at the polls last November, a "coalition" rooted in divisiveness rules one chamber of the Legislature. Its leader appears willing to cut the cloth of his conscience to fit the fashions of this coalition.

In Washington, we dream big dreams. We've been technology pacesetters. We don't just tilt at windmills, we use them to generate power. We still manufacture stuff the world wants to buy (at least as soon as smoking batteries on the Boeing 787 get replaced).

It is all the more disappointing to see limited, divisive leadership in our Legislature.